Dodger Thoughts

Jon Weisman's outlet for dealing psychologically with the Los Angeles Dodgers, baseball and life

Dodgers do it again … again

“Just do it. Just do it here. Don’t want to wait. Don’t want to see Rivera. Can we just get it here?”

Amazingly, yes.

Somehow, the Dodgers turned the combo of Andre Ethier on first base and Mark Ellis at the plate with two out in the bottom of the ninth into yet another victory, 3-2 over the New York Yankees.

Ethier, a 24-for-47 basestealer in his career, pilfered second base on an 0-1 ball to Ellis. Then, with a full count, Ellis looped a Shawn Kelley offering into short left field, just in the right spot to score Ethier with the winning run.

With that, the Dodgers were 10-1 after the All-Star break for the first time in their history and 27-6 over a 33-game stretch for the first time in 60 years. They lead Arizona by 3 1/2 games in the National League West and trail Pittsburgh by 6 1/2 games for the best record in the NL.

Kenley Jansen pitched a perfect, 15-pitch ninth against Robinson Cano, Alfonso Soriano and Lyle Overbay to qualify for the win. Jansen has pitched six times in the past eight games, but fortunately, hasn’t used more than 15 pitches in a game since July 16.

Since May 25, Jansen has pitched 32 innings with 43 strikeouts, 26 baserunners, a 1.13 ERA, 14.3 strikeouts per walk and five of six inherited runners stranded.

Andy Petttitte and Zack Greinke pitched to a draw, each allowing two runs over seven innings with no walks. Pettitte allowed eight hits and struck out three, while Greinke allowed five hits and struck out seven.

Pettitte twice fell behind, in the first inning on a booming double off the top of the center-field wall by Yasiel Puig, followed by a Hanley Ramirez RBI single, then again in the second inning when Juan Uribe hit a 441-foot home run to the Loge Level in left field, the 22nd Loge blast in Dodger Stadium history and the ninth 0-2 homer ever off Pettitte in his long career.

Each time, the Yankees came back. Greinke gave up a homer to Overbay in the top of the second and threw a costly wild pitch that contributed to a run in the fourth.

That was it until the ninth, when the Dodgers did it again. They did it again. They did it again.

 

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25 Comments

  1. trevorrawson

    Ahhhh!!! I love baseball!! Such a great game! Good pitching and a walk of win!!!

  2. KT

    Dodgers PR ‏@DodgersPR13m
    The #Dodgers bullpen has not allowed a hit, much less a run in its last 9.1 innings over four games.

    • Anonymous

      The same bullpen which blew soo many saves earlier in the year!

      I strongly believe in second chances and being able to turn yourself around . . . but I NEVER would have thought this team could gel soo well to now be 9 games above .500 . . . when it seemed like just reaching break-even would be a silver lining for the year.

      • KT

        I had faith but this run has been incredible and it’s not over yet

  3. KT

    Padres 4-2

  4. I’m glad the Dodgers didn’t start 27-6 and then go 30-42.

    • Anonymous

      “It’s not where you start, it’s where you finish . . . “

    • Anonymous

      Putting it that way makes me realize that this past 5 weeks have been great but it will be how they finish that really matters. 57 games left. How many wins will it take? 30? 34? More?

      • Anonymous

        I know it’s bold, but I predict a 40-17 finish to end up at 97-65

  5. Anonymous

    Great night. Thank you to my daughter for our tickets and thanks to Mark Ellis for the tremendous finish. Dinner at Philippe’s, Dodger dog at the game, closed out by the original Tommy’s stand. A lot of fun to get back to LA for a couple of days.

  6. Anonymous

    86 my waffle? That was the number of wins I dreamed of way back then. To achieve that the Dodgers would now need to basically play .500 ball from here on out.

    • Anonymous

      I recall myself as a young kid growing up in Southern California crawling up next to the humongous Hi-Fi with the warm glowing tubes to listen to Vinny.

      • Anonymous

        Sitting with family in back yard with orange groves here and there (Rialto of the late 50’s) listening to Vin. Good times.

    • Anonymous

      Terrific. I hope I don’t sound so antiquated 40 years from now when describing how I used to watch baseball games on my old-fashioned flatscreen TV.

      Can somebody tell me why Vin Scully is so revered by other broadcasters, but never emulated? You never hear Vin with a catchphrase, a home run call, even a rise in his voice unless the truly extraordinary happens. Sure, he’s seen 5,000 more games than Michael Kay or Ken Harrelson has ever seen, but he’s been a model of equanimity forever.

  7. Anonymous

    Over the past month and a half, order has been restored in the (baseball) universe.

    • Anonymous

      Couldn’t agree more – the NL west standings today are picture-perfect.

      • Anonymous

        I’d rather see the Rocks ahead of the Snakes, but the dead-last Gnats is always a pleasure.

        • Anonymous

          Rockies are the only team that has a chance to catch the Dodgers at this point.

          • Anonymous

            It seems the Snakes have strengthened their pen slightly at the expense of their rotation (which was questionable even before the trade).

  8. Padres acquire Ian Kennedy from Dbacks. I see SD is preparing for the next series in LA, adding Kennedy to Quentin for brawl 2.0.

    • Anonymous

      Maybe Kennedy can just hit Quentin directly and avoid the middleman.

  9. KT

    Dodgers lineup:
    Crawford LF
    Puig RF
    AGon 1B
    Hanley SS
    Ethier CF
    Ellis C
    Schumaker 2B
    Uribe 3B
    Kershaw P

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